


Chilling Tales of the Old and Strange

by i_write_a_lot



Category: The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Aliens, Angst, Family, Friendship, Gen, Ghosts, Halloween Ghost Story, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Mystery, OCs - Freeform, Other - Freeform, Scary Stories, Slight swearing, Women Being Awesome, vanishings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-09
Updated: 2014-10-09
Packaged: 2018-02-20 13:45:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2431016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_write_a_lot/pseuds/i_write_a_lot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marie Chandler gets lost in the midst of a circus, and winds up getting ‘rescued’ by Hawkeye. Except that it might be already too late…</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> -Written for Halloween.
> 
> -i do not own the avengers or any of its affiliations. The only characters i own are Marie Chandler and her family. 
> 
> -Kudos and Comments much appreciated. Thank you very much for reading.

“Are you bored already?” Marie Chandler asked her brother, who was flipping through a Hawkeye comic book he’d bought at the nearest bookstand.   
“Me not bored, just not interested,” Thomas Chandler said, not even looking up. 

“That’s what bored means, dickwad,”

“Marie Ann Chandler, you watch your mouth!” Her mother smacked her in the back of the head. 

“Ow!” She protested. “Mom, it’s just a word I heard the performers using! I didn’t know it was bad!” She did, but she knew this would appease her mother. She wasn’t looking to get grounded again this year. She had a lot of books she was eager to get her hands on. Her friends said her mom was weird because instead of getting grounded from tv, she was grounded from books.

Her mother’s expression softened. 

“Oh,” She said. “Well, then don’t use that word. It’s rude, and mean.” She said, and Marie nodded solemnly. 

“Where’s dad?” Thomas asked, looking around the room. 

“He’s busy talking to one of the instructors,” She said fondly and exasperatedly. They knew why-he’d talked and talked and talked to them to death, as he was fascinated by the art of the circus. Marie liked some of it-the lady who was on top of the elephant was cool, and the high wire trapeze was awesome too. She didn’t know much about the rest, though. The lion tamer was more her brother’s style, but the throwing knives…now that was pretty cool.

“I’m going to get my bag from the van,” Marie announced. “Knowing dad, he’ll take ages, and I can read.”

“Go, but be careful,” 

Those would be the last words that Marie would hear her mother speak.


	2. Chapter 2

Marie went through the tents, and around dozens of people, and ducked beneath strange animals-a monkey tried to grab her hair at one point, but she was faster-and she finally reached a quiet area, thinking she was near the parking lot. 

But there weren’t anything but a lot of tents.

Five minutes of unease turned into ten, and ten turned into twenty. She began to get frightened, and realized she was lost inside the maze of tents. She couldn’t even hear anyone. She began to call out, crying for help, and finally fell and only moved so that she was sitting up against a bright red tent, her knees underneath her chin, sniffling and crying. 

She’d never been lost like this before, or so alone.

Leaves were the only noise, as was the rustling of the tents. She thought of ducking into the tents, but something told her not to, something-

“Hey,” A man’s voice! An adult! She looked up, face still streaked with tears, and saw him-and froze. “Hey, kid, you okay?”

“I’m lost,” She stammered, staring at him. He couldn’t be real. He looked exactly like that character that Thomas was always showing her-Hawkeye. She never read Thomas’s comic books, but Thomas regaled the stories often enough that she knew some of them by heart, even if she hadn’t read them. The Amazing Hawkeye, brought up in a circus, becoming part of the avengers to defeat Loki. She sniffled, wiping her face on her sleeves. 

“Yeah,” The guy said, and she realized that he wasn’t talking to her-but someone else. “I’m good, Coulson. Just found a little kid, that’s all. She looks to be about six,”

“’me seven,” She said, indignantly. He chuckled. 

“Seven,” He corrected himself. “She says her name is…” He waited, but then realized-even if he was the amazing Hawkeye, he was a stranger. She hesitated, and then shivered when a breeze came over her. It was starting to get into the cold season, it felt like, and she only had on a light jacket. The man blinked. “Oh, here,” And he gave her his jacket, drapping it across her shoulders. She muttered thanks, and said, 

“Marie,”

“Marie, huh? That’s a pretty name,” He said, smiling. “I’m Hawkeye,” He introduced. “But friends call me Clint,”

“The Amazing Hawkeye,” She mumbled, feeling suddenly tired. The crying must’ve worn her out, but she didn’t dare fall asleep-she didn’t want to look into the tents. She wasn’t sure why, but…the tents were dangerous. 

“That’s right,” He agreed, surprised. “You’ve heard of me?”

She saw something down the rows of tents when yawning, and paused, staring. Hawkeye turned to look too, but clearly didn’t see anything. 

“What’s the matter kid? If there’s something dangerous, we can hide under the tents, or-”

“Don’t go in the tents,” She whispered, and he blinked. “Please.” 

“Okay, I won’t,” He promised. “What’s wrong?” 

“I don’t know. I’m just…I’m lost,” She repeated from earlier, confused. She didn’t understand anymore, she only wanted to go to sleep, and rest for a while. She desperately wanted to see her mother, brother, and father again. 

“Yes, I know. Where is everyone?”

“I don’t know. I told mom that I was going to go and get my book from the van,” She began, feeling a memory flickering over her. “She said it was okay, that I had to be careful. I promised her I would be.”

“And you did good,” Hawkeye reassured her. 

“I tried to get to the van. There were lots of people, it was a big turnout dad said. I don’t know what he meant, though.”

“Means more people came than the circus thought,” Hawkeye explained, glancing around. “Kid, you’re kinda freaking me out here…”

She went on, ignoring him. 

“I ducked underneath the mean monkey-it was trying to grab my hair-and I saw something…a big blue portal. It looked pretty, and I went near it. I was thinking of touching it. I thought I could take a piece of it, and show it to my brother, he would know-he reads comic books,” She added. 

“-not sure, Coulson. She seems like she’s stuck in some kind of memory,” Hawkeye was saying, but she ignored him, standing up. She was tired of sitting, after all. 

“Things came out of the portal,” She whispered, and Hawkeye stared at her. “They were like black shadows…monsters. They stared eating people. They must not have seen me, because they came out the other side of the portal. I hid, and was afraid-I hated being afraid, because I didn’t want to die a coward. So I ran, and tried to find Thomas, mom and dad…but it was too late. They were dead. I saw other people-bright lights being pulled from their bodies, and sometimes their skin coming off too.” She shivered, weeping. “Thomas didn’t deserve that! Neither did my parents! None of them did! They even took the animals!” 

She could vaguely hear yelling from a type of radio, someone telling Hawkeye to get out of there!

“Marie,” Hawkeye said gently. “Marie, can you show me where the portal is so that we can shut it down?”

“The portal’s gone. It’s been gone for years,” Marie said dully. “They left some of their own behind though. They’re in the tents, I think.”

And then it registered what she said, and she realized-she had been in one of those tents. 

Which meant…

She should not be here at all. 

She frowned. 

“Hawkeye,” She asked, and he waited. “I’m dead, aren’t I?”

He nodded once. 

She sighed, feeling relieved to finally know why she’d been lost all this time, and no one had ever come to find her. 

“I’ll guide you back to your friends. I think I know the way. But don’t look into the tents. Don’t open them, don’t…”

“I won’t. I’ll just stay in the sunshine,” Hawkeye promised, and she smiled, and began to walk towards the front of the old circus. Hawkeye hesitated at one spot though, seeing something on the ground. He picked it up. “This comic book…the Amazing Hawkeye-was this your brothers?” 

“Perhaps,” She said, studying it. 

“Well, you’ve found his comic book-doesn’t that sort of mean you’ve found him?” Hawkeye suggested, and she felt better. 

Happier. 

“I think so,” She agreed, glancing around. One of the tents rustled, and she quickly turned away, hoping to urge him onwards. “Hawkeye, please-leave.”

“Okay,” He agreed, easily. “I’m going…”

A gust of wind blew open a tent, and both of them froze, seeing a dark shadow coming straight at them. 

Marie acted without thinking, as did Hawkeye who flung himself onto a large stand, out of reach. Marie flung herself at the shadow, shrieking in rage and hate and anger, hoping…

“GO!” She howled at Hawkeye, who shivered at the huge gust of wind that picked up. “GOOO!” 

The magical blue portal opened without warning, and the tents all began to crumble. 

Hawkeye turned tail, and ran.


	3. Chapter 3

Back in Shield Headquarters, Hawkeye finished telling his ghost story, smirking at the open-mouthed looks of astonishment from the others of his team. Well, Tony, Steve, and Bruce were open-mouthed, while Natasha was unfazed, and Thor just looked spooked. 

“What about those aliens?” Tony demanded. 

“The blue portal must’ve sucked them all back to their homeworld.” Hawkeye said, shrugging. “We never found any.” 

“And Marie?” Thor asked, sounding hopeful. “Did she find peace?” 

Hawkeye smiled.

“I hope she did,” He said softly, and Tony shook his head. 

“I don’t believe you-you made it all up!” He said, and Hawkeye smiled, pulling out a single aged comic book that read The Amazing Hawkeye! on the cover. 

They stared at it, and Natasha snorted and then whacked him on the head. 

“Ow! What was that for!” He protested, rubbing the injured spot. 

“For ignoring Coulson’s orders to get out of there when he told you,” Natasha said mildly, sipping her tea. 

Tony, Bruce, Steve, and Thor all looked vaguely disturbed at the comic book, while Clint complained about being abused by his own teammembers and Natasha sitting and smiling. 

Coulson watched from the doorway with Fury, who shook his head. 

“Ghost stories already,” Fury grumbled. “It’s not even Halloween yet!” 

“Halloween’s only a few weeks away, sir. That’s what makes this story all the better,” Coulson pointed out calmly. 

“And that portal? Any news?” 

“The circus has been taken away to be properly examined, the area where the circus was has been completely cut off from all the rest of the world, and there’s no sign of   
Marie Chandler-but we have found her remains, and that of her family, sir. A proper burial to take place on Halloween, if your interested.” Coulson said with a smile.   
Fury grumbled, but Coulson knew he was interested-he always paid respects to the brave ones, the innocent ones…and Marie had been both.

With a barely noticeable smile he watched Fury leave to head back to his office. Coulson heard laughter in the breakroom, as Clint was teasing Tony about being scared of ghosts, and Tony was giving back as good as he got. Coulson frowned when he felt a flicker of cold, and a soft, gentle whisper of…

“Thank you,” A young girl’s voice. He couldn’t place who it was, and looked for a good five minutes, before he heard Steve calling,

“Phil! Come join us!”

He saw Natasha eyeing him, as he seemed spooked a bit, before shaking it off. It didn’t matter who it was that said thanks. Only that they had. 

And he had a good idea of who it might’ve been too. 

Smiling more pronounced, he went into the breakroom to join his team.

The avengers.

**Author's Note:**

> -The End!


End file.
